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ZH Cyncbing of negroes in 



Its Causes and Remedy. 

BY 

REV. FRANCIS J, GRIMKE, D. D„ 

WASHINGTON, D. C. 


"Once to every man and nation 
Comes the moment to decide, 

In the strife of Truth with Falsehood, 
For the good or evil side ; 

Some great cause, God's new Messiah, 
Offers each the bloom or blight, 
And the choice goes forever 

’Twixt that darkness and that light. 

Then the side with Truth is nobler 
When we share her wretched crust, 
Ere her cause bring fame and profit 
And 'tis prosperous to be just j 
Then it is the brave man chooses, 
While the coward stands aside, 

Till the multitude make virtue 
Of the faith they had dented." 



CONTENTS 


Sermon I. Lynching. Its Causes:—a low 
state of civilization, and race 
hatred. i 

Sermon II. Lynching. Its causes:— “ The 

crimes of the Negro.”. 25 

Sermon III. The remedy for the present 
strained relation between the 
races ir. the South. 51 


These sermons were delivered in the Fifteenth Street 
Presbyterian church, Washington D. C. June 4th, 18th, 
and 25th, 1899. They are sent forth in the hope that they 
may throw some light on the subject discussed, and 
may result in some good. 








3erri)on I. 

Acts 7:57. 

“Then they cried with a loud voice, and stopped their 
ears, and ran upon him with one accord, and cast him 
out of the city, and stoned him.” 

TbT the April meeting of the Afro-American Na- 
I tional Council held in this city, a day of pray¬ 
er and fasting was determined upon to be 
observed by our people throughout the country. 
Since that time an address has been issued setting 
apart Friday, June 2nd, as the day. After direct¬ 
ing attention to the sad condition of things in this 
country as respects our people, the address closes in 
these words: “Owing to these and many other 
calamitous conditions, of which time forbids a recit¬ 
al, unhistoric, unprecedented, and dreadfully abnor¬ 
mal, we are impelled by a sense of duty and the 
instincts of our moral natures, to appeal to the Afro- 
Americans in the United States to put forth some 
endeavor, by ceasing to be longer silent, and to ap¬ 
peal to some judicatory for help and relief. If earth 
affords none for our helpless and defenseless race, 




2 


we must appeal to the bar of Infinite Power and 
Justice, whose Judge holds the destinies of nations 
in his hands. 

Therefore, we, the National Afro-American 
Council of the United States, in keeping with the 
custom in all ages, and among all nations in times 
of mourning, sorrow, affliction, persecution and 
great calamity, call upon, and pathetically implore 
every member of our race, man, woman, and child, 
to observe Friday, the second day of June, as a day 
of fasting and prayer, and thus invoke the aid and 
help of that God who rules in the armies of Heaven, 
and among the inhabitants of the earth. 

We also invoke the ministers and churches of all 
denominations to crowd their churches, in sunrise 
devotion on the following Sabbath, June 4th, for 
special song, prayer, and remarks, in keeping with 
the occasion, either exhortations, or relating expe¬ 
riences, from such as desire to sing, pray and speak: 
and at one of the hours of regular preaching, that 
the pastors of the respective churches shall deliver a 
sermon upon the duties, holy lives, and suppression 
of all sinful habits, conduct and words, that God 
the Father of mercies may take our deplorable case 
in his own hands, and that if vengeance is to be 
meted out let God himself repay.” 

It was at first suggested, in connection with this 
Fast Day, that on the following Sabbath, all minis- 


3 


ters of all denominations, and of all colors be asked 
to speak particularly on the subject of lynching; 
not for the purpose of stirring up bad blood, not 
for the purpose of denunciation, but in the hope 
that a calm, dispassionate discussion of the subject 
would help to create a healthy public sentiment 
that will render such outbreaks of lawlessness im¬ 
possible in the future. I thought then that it was 
a good suggestion, and think so still. And it is to 
this subject, therefore, that I desire to direct your 
attention this morning. 

In the subject of lynching, the Negro has a gen¬ 
eral interest, and he has a special interest. A general 
interest in that he is an American citizen, interested 
in all that affects the present and future welfare of 
this country. He hasn’t had very much to encourage 
his patriotism. He has been oppressed, down-trod¬ 
den, brutally treated ; he has been told again and 
again, This is a white man’s government, and every¬ 
thing has been done to make him feel like an alien. 
He is still patriotic, however. Whenever the call 
has come to him for any duty, he has always cheer¬ 
fully responded. And to-day, there is no class of 
citizens that would sacrifice more for the honor and 
defense of this nation than the Negro ; there is no 
class of citizens that has given stronger or better 
proof of its patriotism. The white man has been 
willing to die for it, and good reason has he had ; 


4 


it has been and is still to him, a veritable paradise; 
the Negro has been willing to die for it, and has 
died for it, though for most of the time it has been 
to him a veritable hell. “Greater love hath no man 
than this, that a man lay down his life for his friend, 
but God commendeth his love to us, in that while 
we were sinners Christ died for us.” The willing¬ 
ness on the part of the Negro to make sacrifices for 
this country, to freely lay down his life for it, in 
spite of the shameful manner in which he has been 
treated in it, has always been a marvel to me. I 
can understand men dying for a country that appre¬ 
ciated them, that protected them in their rights, that 
showed some interest in them ; but men dying for 
a country that permits them to be despoiled of 
their rights, to be discriminated against, to be shot 
down and driven from their homes, and every indig¬ 
nity heaped upon them, without stretching forth so 
much as a finger in their defense, is incomprehensi¬ 
ble to me. And yet, that is true of the Negro. If 
the American people needed any proof of the value 
of this black race to this country, that ought to be 
sufficient. Such love, such devotion, no govern¬ 
ment can afford to despise and but few can com¬ 
mand. To say that the Negro is patriotic, that 
he loves this country, that he has given over and 
over again the most substantial proofs of his patri¬ 
otism, is to pay him one of the greatest compliments, 


s 


is to show him to be possessed of an unusual 
amount of magnanimity, of greatness of soul. And 
because he is all that I have said of him, because he 
is patriotic, the subject of lynching appeals to him, 
and ought to appeal to every true patriot. For the 
spirit of the mob cannot prevail in any section of 
the country without affecting the whole. It begets 
contempt for law, and encourages a spirit which is 
subversive of all government. And the prevalence 
of that spirit means ruin to the whole country. 

But in addition to this general interest, the Ne¬ 
gro has also a special interest in the subject of lynch¬ 
ing, because it is against him mainly that this spirit 
of lawlessness manifests itself. The great majority 
of these lynchings are in the South and in ninety- 
nine cases out of a hundred the victims are Negroes. 
His own welfare and happiness, his own safety im¬ 
pels him therefore to take in this subject more than 
a passing interest. 

With these preliminary remarks, let us now calm¬ 
ly address ourselves to the subject. What is lynch¬ 
ing? It is the summary execution of an offender, 
or supposed offender, without due process of law, 
by a self-constituted and irresponsible body of men. 
A careful study of this definition will show that a 
mob implies five things. It implies (i) that there 
are laws which fully provide for the punishment of 
the alleged offender, if found guilty. (2). It im- 


6 


plies that there are officers who have been entrusted 
with the execution or enforcement of the laws. (3). 
It implies all the machinery necessary to establish 
the guilt or innocence of the prisoner. (4). It im¬ 
plies power sufficient on the part of the properly 
constituted authority to enforce the penalty of the 
law. And (5) it implies an unwillingness on the 
mob to allow the law to have its course. The mob, 
mark you, is not doing something which the State 
is powerless to do, but something which it is unwill¬ 
ing to have the State do, and in the way prescribed 
by law. Unwilling, I say. In dealing with the 
philosophy of this subject it is important that we 
note that fact. 

Why are these lynchers unwilling to have the law 
take its course ? It cannot be from any fear on their 
part that the prisoner may 'escape, through legal 
technicalities and tricks of the profession, or through 
any combination of circumstances favorable to him. 
The combination of circumstances is always against 
him. The whole machinery of justice in the 
South is in the hands of the whites; the judges, 
the sheriffs, the constables, even jurors, with rare 
exceptions, are all white. These officers are not 
only ready to execute the laws against him, but alas., 
are only too glad to do so. His guilt is assumed 
often, even before he has had a hearing. There 
isn’t the ghost of a chance for a Negro escaping, if 


7 


there is a scintilla of evidence against him; even 
when he is innocent, he can hardly make his escape. 
Instead of assuming that he is innocent until he is 
proven guilty, the presumption is always the other 
way, that he is guilty until he proves his innocence. 
And that is always a difficult thing to do, especially 
if the charge against him is made by a white man. 
The word of the Negro goes for nothing against the 
word of the white man. Before the war, bear in 
mind the fact, that a Negro was not allowed to 
testify at all in a court of law against a white man. 
And that is still the unwritten law in the South. 
It is well nigh impossible therefore, for a Negro to 
establish his innocence if a white man testifies 
against him, and his only rebutting witnesses are 
colored men. The presumption always is, that 
what the white man says against the Negro is true. 
There is not on record, in all the Southland, a sin¬ 
gle case where a guilty Negro has been allowed to 
escape, through any bias in his favor on the part of 
judge or jury, or through any legal technicalities or 
tricks of the profession, where the alleged offence 
was charged by a white person ; an accused Armen¬ 
ian might just as soon hope to escape from the 
clutches of the Turks. Negroes are not lynched in 
the South through any fear that they will be allow¬ 
ed to escape the just penalty of the law in case of 
conviction. There isn’t an honest, truthful man 
anywhere who will set up such a plea. 


8 


What then is the explanation of this spirit of law¬ 
lessness in the South? Out of what does it come? 
What is the true philosophy of it? It is due partly 
to a low state of civilization, and partly to race 
hatred. 

(i). It is due partly to a low state of civilization. 
Say what we will, and I refer to it not for the pur¬ 
pose of reflecting upon the South but simply be¬ 
cause, in the discussion of this subject, what we 
want is the truth,—the plane of civilization there is 
very much lower than it is in the North. The ele¬ 
ments that belong to a savage state, or at best, to a 
semi-civilized community, are more largely domi¬ 
nant in the South than in the North. The brutal 
instincts of our nature have acquired an extraordi¬ 
nary ascendency in the South. The first impulse is 
to fight, to resort to brute force, to knock somebody 
in the head, or to fly at somebody’s throat. That 
is true among all classes, rich and poor, high and low, 
educated and uneducated. Hence almost every¬ 
body goes armed. They seem to prefer to settle 
their differences with fisticuffs, or by an appeal to 
arms. I clipped from the Post of this city, the fol¬ 
lowing item not long ago ; “Okolona, Miss., May 9. 
—A terrific four-handed street battle occurred here 
to-day. The participants, Dr. J. Murfee and his son, 
Howard Murfee, on the one side, and C. D. and 
W. F. Clark on the other. Knives and pistols were 


9 


used, and Dr. Murfee, and his son, and C. D. Clark 
were killed on the spot, and W. F. Clark was mor¬ 
tally wounded. He died this evening. The trage¬ 
dy was enacted at noon in front of the residences of 
Dr. Murfee and Charles Clark, an attorney. Clark 
' had called on Dr. Murfee over a disputed doctor’s 
bill, and they quarrelled, going into the street to 
fight it out. Clark drew a knife and cut Dr. Mur- 
fee’s throat, severing the jugular vein. At that 
moment Walter Clark, a brother of Charles, rushed 
from his yard and fired four shots into the prostrate 
body of Dr. Murfee, any one of them would have 
proven fatal. Then Dr. Murfee’sson, Howard, ap¬ 
peared, firing first at Charles Clark, shooting him 
through the head. Then he fired three times at 
Walter Clark, one bullet entering the forehead. 
Walter Clark fired again, shooting Howard Murfee 
through the heart, Excepting Walter Clark, all 
died instantly. Dr. Murfee was sixty years of age, 
and leaves a widow and four children. His son was 
aged twenty-one Charles Clark was forty, and un¬ 
married. Walter Clark was thirty three, and leaves 
a widow and one child.” This painful story illus¬ 
trates what I mean. Such occurrences are liableto 
take place at any time, and in all grades of society. 
The most trivial thing is liable to produce blood¬ 
shed. It is only a word and a blow. The whole 
social atmosphere seems to be in a highly inflamma- 


10 

ble condition, needing only a word to produce an 
explosion. As people rise in civilization, as they 
come under higher influences, these brutal instincts 
become more and more subdued. 

Another evidence of the low state of civilization 
in the South is to be found in the actual horrors 
which are constantly occurring there. The scene 
that was inaugurated at Newnan, it is safe to say 
could not have occurred in any Northern settle¬ 
ment. Public sentiment has been so educated, that 
it simply would not have been possible. And yet, 
anyone who knows the South, knows that there is 
scarcely a settlement in it where it may not have 
occurred. This spirit of cruelty, of brutality, is 
limited to no one Southern state, it is found in 
them all; it is limited to no section of any one state, 
it is liable to break out at any point. Newnan was 
not an exceptionally bad settlement, indeed, it was 
above the average, it was in the immediate vicinity 
of Atlanta, acknowledged to be the most progres¬ 
sive city in the South. It was what would be called 
a good, respectable Southern community, and yet 
Sam Hose was tortured and burnt to death there, 
and the same thing might have occurred in any oth¬ 
er Southern settlement. All the elements which 
conspired to make the Newnan tragedy possible, are 
present in every Southern community. 

Still another evidence of the low state of civiliza- 


II 


tion in the South is to be found in the kind of in¬ 
terest that is taken in such atrocities. The editor 
of the New York Sun in commenting upon the 
burning of Hose says, “The Journal,” one of the 
leading dailies of Atlanta, “treated the occurrence 
in the spirit in which local reporters write of some 
great festive occasion. It told of the train loads 
of Sunday excursionists that went from Atlanta to 
witness the awful spectacle. It dwelt upon the hu¬ 
mors of the day, described what it called ‘the rich 
and magnificent scenes enacted along the route of 
the Sunday excursion train from Atlanta, compli¬ 
mented the hundreds of ladies who stood on porches 
waving their handkerchiefs, and smiling approval, as 
far as they could see it, exhausting the resources of 
dialect writing to make the narrative racy, and 
wound up with a tribute of the character of Hon. 
Hoke Smith’s town, and an expression of regret 
that all of them did not succeed in reaching the 
scene of the burning alive of Sam Hose in season 
to witness his agonies.” The Journal in its descrip¬ 
tion goes on further to say: “The West Point Rail¬ 
road sold about two thousand tickets yesterday. 
One of the most animated spectacles ever seen in 
^Atlanta was the struggle for tickets at the Union 
Depot. So great was the crowd that hundreds 
could not get there, and had to pay their way on 
the train, or stay behind. The agent stood in the 


2 


depot and yelled : Get your tickets at the West 
Point office in the Kimball. There was a rush for 
the office, but when the crowd surged in they found 
the same kind of fight going on as at the depot. 
It was the most exciting struggle for tickets ever 
witnessed in Atlanta. Hundreds of the best men 
in Atlanta took the trains. It was the best humor¬ 
ed crowd that ever left the city, and the most or¬ 
derly. There was not a drunken man aboard. The 
only thought, the only fear of the great crowds, 
which looked more like a jolly party bound for the 
races than a lynching, was that they might be too 
late to see the execution.” 

“The quiet dignity and perfect order of the hun¬ 
dreds from Atlanta at Newnan was notable. In¬ 
deed, it formed one of the most interesting features 
of the day.” 

“But for the fact that the programme was sud¬ 
denly changed, and the lynching took place near 
Newnan, fully five thousand people would have 
seen the burning near the Cranford home, and of 
these nearly half were from Atlanta.” “The change 
of programme prevented the Atlanta crowds from 
seeing the lynching There was great disappoint¬ 
ment, but the crowd was not to be outdone, for two 
thirds, on arriving at Newnan, went out to view the 
scene of the burning, scores on foot, hundreds in 
vehicles, and, though they failed to see the lynch- 


13 


ing, at least one man in fifty brought away some 
memento of the terrible punishment inflicted upon 
the monster barbarian when he expiated in the 
flames his most horrible crime.” 

Nothing, perhaps, could give us a better insight 
into Southern civilization, than that picture, so 
graphically drawn by an eye-witness. Think of 
hundreds of the best citizens of Atlanta struggling 
with each other for tickets to witness such a specta¬ 
cle; think of delicate and refined Southern women 
standing on their porches, and waving their hand¬ 
kerchiefs in approval of the burning to death of a hu¬ 
man being; think of five thousand people going out 
on the Holy Sabbath day to witness such a scene, 
in “the same spirit as they would go out to witness 
the races, having but one thought, but one fear, that 
they might be too late to see the execution.” 

Still another evidence of the low grade of civili¬ 
zation in the South is to be found in its Prison 
Lease System, and the brutal manner in which it 
permits criminals to be treated under that system. 
No one can become familiar with the facts, with 
what is actually taking place there, without being 
horrified, and without being deeply concerned for 
the future of a section of our country which quietly 
permits such a condition of things to exist in its 
midst. The simple fact is, it doesn’t seem to touch 
the moral sense of the people at all. There seems 


r 4 


to be no appreciation of its real character, except 
here and there. The masses think it is all right, and 
are perfectly willing to have it continue. 

In a civilization such as is found in the South 
where brute force predominates, where the passions 
are in the ascendency, where there is little or no 
self-control, and where the tendency is for the in¬ 
dividual to promptly right his own wrongs, instead 
of waiting for the slower processes of law, such out¬ 
breaks of lawlessness as are seen in these repeated 
lynchings are not to be wondered at. They grow 
naturally out of such conditions, are incident to that 
stage of development, and show conclusively that 
the plane of Southern civilization is low. 

The other cause contributing to these outbreaks 
of lawlessness in the South, is race hatred. By 
this, I mean that these horrible lynchings of Ne¬ 
groes in the South, are due, in part, to the hatred 
which the white man feels toward the Negro. I 
know we hear a great deal of the love of the South¬ 
ern whites for the Negro, and, if we are to be¬ 
lieve what some of our colored leaders say, the 
Southern white man is really the best friend that the 
Negro has. That the Southern white man is inter¬ 
ested in the Negro, that he feels kindly towards 
him may be true, it is true in a sense, i. e. provided 
he keeps in his place. The Southern white man 
believes that the Negro has a place,—not a place 


i5 


which he may carve out for himself by dint of per¬ 
severance and hard work, by the development of 
intellectual, moral, and financial strength, just as in 
the case of any other race ; but a place, in spite of 
whatever qualities he may develop, however praise¬ 
worthy, or whatever his achievements might be, in 
which he must be kept ; and that is a position of 
inferiority. As long as the Negro is willing to oc¬ 
cupy that position the Southern white man is ready 
to befriend him, and to go any length in showing 
his friendship for him ; in other words, it is the old 
time Negro that the Southern white man loves, the 
Negro of ante-bellum days, the Negro that stands 
with hat in hand, and that knows his place. That 
is all the love of the Southern white man for the 
Negro means ; it is as an inferior that he loves him. 
This sentiment is prevalent throughout the South. 
There are some noble exceptions, I am glad to say, 
but the masses of the people, ninety-nine hun¬ 
dredths of them, feel just as I have stated. Noth¬ 
ing is more firmly planted in their minds than the 
idea, that the Negro, as such, whether educated or 
uneducated, whether good or bad, has a place, and 
that in that place he must be kept. 

The Southern white man not only believes this, 
but it is his fixed purpose and determination to or¬ 
ganize Southern society, and as far as he is able, 
the whole country, on that basis. Hence, in every 


i6 


way possible, he is seeking to emphasize and to fix 
permanently the status of the Negro as an inferior. 
This purpose is written not only in the hearts of 
the Southern people, but is being written in the or¬ 
ganic laws of the land. The legislative power of 
the several states has been called into play to per¬ 
petuate these notions, so that the generations that 
are to follow will know what their fathers thought, 
and what their wishes were on this matter. The 
whole fabric of Southern society, as it existed be¬ 
fore the war, and as it is now being attempted to be 
built, rests upon the assumption ol the alleged infe¬ 
riority of the Negro. Everything centres about 
that idea; that is the one thing that is never lost 
sight of. The races may not intermarry, because 
the N^gro is inferior; the races may not ride in the 
same cars, because the Negro is inferior; the races 
may not sit in the same waiting room at the depot, 
because the Negro is inferior; the races may not, 
while travelling eat in the same dining room, be¬ 
cause the Negro is inferior; the races may not even 
sit in the same pews, in the house of God, because 
the Negro is inferior; the Negro must be excluded 
from the ballot box for the same reason, because 
he is inferior. It isn’t because he is ignorant, for 
there is no desire to get rid of the illiterate white 
voter. The disposition in the South to cut down 
appropriations for Negro schools, to curtail as far 


17 


as possible his educational advantages, is for the 
same reason, because he is regarded as an inferior, 
as not needing what the white child needs. In this 
fact is to be found also the reason why industrial 
education for the Negro is so popular in the South; 
it is because by industrial education, they under¬ 
stand an education that will better fit the Negro to 
be a servant, to fill the place which they have mark¬ 
ed out for him. Even in the great International 
Sunday School Convention, which held its session 
recently at Atlanta, the same spirit cropped out. A 
colored gentleman, one of the delegates, on finding 
that he was separated from the delegation with 
which he came, and with which he ought to have 
been placed in the hall, refused to submit, and in¬ 
sisted upon taking his seat with his delegation. 
This precipitated a discussion, in the course of 
which the Second Vice-President, a Mr. Green of 
Atlanta, said : “We live here among this people. 
We respect them. We treat them right. We treat 
them as nicely as we do our own color. But we 
draw the line when it comes to sitting together 
in the same pew.” And that sentiment was ap¬ 
plauded. Why applauded ? Because it represented 
Southern sentiment. Why draw the line when it 
comes to sitting together in the same pew ? Be¬ 
cause the Negro is regarded as an inferior, and be¬ 
cause, according to the program which is now being 




i8 


carried out in the South, nothing must be tolerated 
that will in the least tend to nullify that fact, or to 
lead the Negro to forget it, or the white man either. 
There is nothing that the Southern white man is 
more jealous of, or to which he clings with greater 
tenacity, than this idea of the inferiority of the Ne¬ 
gro. It runs into everything; it shows itself in every 
way possible. What the law has not done to im¬ 
press this fact upon the Negro, public sentiment is- 
constantly seeking to do. 

Having now before us the Southern white man’s 
view of the Negro, the place which he thinks the 
Negro ought to occupy, if we are ever to reach a 
solution of this problem, it is also important for us 
to know what the Negro thinks of the Southern 
white man’s estimate of him, of the place to which 
he has been assigned in the social scale by the 
Southern white man. If he accepts this estimate of 
himself, if he is willing to occupy this position, the 
relation between the races in the South is practical¬ 
ly settled. But the simple fact is, and it is a fact 
creditable to the Negro, that he does not accept the 
Southern white man’s estimate of him ; he is not 
willing to be circumscribed by the Southern white 
man’s idea of him. He believes that he is a man, 
in the broadest sense of that term ; that he is en¬ 
titled to be treated as a man, and that the place for 
him, as for any other man is to be determined by 


19 


his capacity and character and by nothing else. 
That is the way this black race feels, and there has 
been in the last thirty years a steady growth of sent¬ 
iment in this direction. During these years the Ne¬ 
gro has been reaching out for wealth, and for educa¬ 
tion, and for social position, and for political prefer¬ 
ment, and for everything else that any other man 
has been reaching out for, and that shows that he is a 
man, that he has the same desires and aspirations as 
other men, and that he isn’t going to be content with 
anything short of the largest opportunities, and the 
fullest enjoyment of all rights, civil and political, to 
which he is entitled. That is where the Negro stands^ 
today ; that is where he will always stand. There 
isn’t the slightest probability that he will ever shift 
his position, that he will ever take any lower ground 
than that. Any one who understands the spirit 
and temper of the Negro knows that this is so. 
And it is just here where the trouble is; and it is 
strange that there are some among us who can’t see 
that. The real difficulty in the South to-day is due 
to what? To the very condition of things to which 
I am here directing attention,—to the fact on the 
one hand, that the white man has certain ideas of 
what the Negro ought be and do, and on the other 
hand, the indisposition on the part of the Negro to 
accept those ideas, to be bound by them. If he 
would fall in with the Southern white man’s way of 


20 


thinking, with the Southern white man’s notions of 
what he ought to be and do, and what he ought not 
to be and do, there would be no trouble. The 
trouble comes from the fact that he has ideas of his 
own, that his plan of life takes in more than the 
white man thinks it ought to take in. And yet 
we are told, as I have already said—that the 
Southern white man is really the best friend that 
the Negro has—the Southern white man, who 
forces him to ride in Jim crow cars, who seeks in 
every possible way to humiliate him, who is labor¬ 
ing systematically and persistently to keep him in 
a position of inferiority ;—how such a man can be 
his best friend, and how a colored man can bring 
himself to believe that such a man is his best friend, 
is simply incomprehensible tome. The average Ne¬ 
gro certainly doesn’t think so, and it proves his 
sanity that he does not. In the breast of the Ne¬ 
gro there are aspirations which are in conflict with 
Southern ideas, and there is where the trouble is. 

Out of this condition of things, there has grown 
a most bitter race hatred. The white man, finding 
it impossible to bring the Negro to his way of 
thinking, now begins to hate him, to manifest the 
most malignant spirit towards him. Every step 
that the Negro takes, every move that he makes, 
which runs counter to the white man’s ideas of 
things, tends only to inflame, to intensify this feel. 


2 


ing. One effect of this race hatred is, to exagger¬ 
ate, to magnify the faults of the Negro, and to 
minify whatever virtues he may possess. Things 
that would scarcely be noticed in others, or that 
would excite little or no comment, call forth the 
severest criticism in him. A regiment of colored 
soldiers, passing through a Southern town on its 
' way home after the war with Spain, in a fit of exu¬ 
berance shoots off a few volleys in the air; straight¬ 
way it is characterized as a set of brutes, shooting 
recklessly, and endangering the lives of the citizens 
of the place. A short while afterwards a white reg¬ 
iment does the same thing, and it is passed over as 
only a little exhibition of jollification, which the same 
papers which denounced the Negro soldiers, thought 
was “ not unnatural under the circumstances.” 

Another effect of this race hatred is seen in the 
undue severity with which Negro criminals are pun¬ 
ished by the courts. No mercy is ever shown them. 
They always get the extreme penalty of the law. 
The difference that is made between white and col¬ 
ored criminals in this respect is most glaring. 
A short while ago I clipped from the Richmond 
Planet the following: “Justice in this section plays 
peculiar pranks sometimes. Tom Smith (colored) 
charged with stealing a silver pitcher from the resi¬ 
dence of Mrs. F. B. Robertson (white) of this city 
was tried in the Hustings Court of this city Tues- 




22 


day, February 7th, and given five years in the peni¬ 
tentiary. As the pitcher in question, was silver- 
plated, and second-hand, it is safe to announce that 
its value did not exceed twenty dollars. 

McNamee, (white) who murdered Atwell (white) 
was tried in this court several years ago and a jury 
gave him five years in the penitentiary, thus put¬ 
ting murder and pitcher stealing on the same plane. 
“A jury in Henrico County Court, which meets in 
this city, gave a white man, Ford, convicted of rape, 
for which the penalty is death, only three years in 
the penitentiary, and a colored man, Green, convict¬ 
ed of stealing a mule, the penalty of which was con¬ 
finement in the state’s prison, ten years in the peni¬ 
tentiary.” These are but samples of what is con¬ 
stantly taking place all over the South, and they 
grow out of this feeling of bitterness towards the 
Negro. 

Out of this same spirit of race hatred grow also, 
in part, these frequent lynchings of Negroes. The 
low level of civilization in the South, is in part re¬ 
sponsible for them, as I have already said, but race 
hatred is also a contributing factor. Any one who 
has studied the subject of the lynching of Negroes 
in the South will see how true this is. The nature 
of the offences alleged is not sufficient to account 
for these frequent outbreaks of lawlessness. Even 
in the alleged cases of rape, which constitute a very 


23 


small percentage of the whole number, there is rea¬ 
son to believe that but for this element of race ha¬ 
tred, the forms which these outbreaks take would 
be different. “There is an element of cruelty, of 
brutality, of savagery, connected with them that 
evinces the bitterest hatred. And the same is true 
in regard to the other causes, as revealed in the list 
of lynchings; were it not for race hatred it would 
be impossible to account for them. A colored man 
is suspected of stealing a hog worth two dollars, and 
is lynched; a colored man has some words with a 
white man, and what he says is regarded as impu¬ 
dence, and he is lynched ; a colored man asks for a 
drink of soda water, at a counter where white peo¬ 
ple are served, and is lynched. Surely there is noth¬ 
ing in the mere fact of stealing a hog, in the mere 
fact of being impudent to a white man, in the mere 
fact of daring to ask for a drink of soda water at a 
counter where white people are served, that could 
possibly lay the basis for a murderous assult upon 
him, that could possibly, in and of itself, lead 
a body of men to seize him and string him up by 
the neck, or riddle him with bullets. The alleged 
offence on the very face of it is not the inspiring 
cause, but only furnishes the occasion for venting 
a bitter race feeling. No man whose breast is free 
from hatred would ever think of murdering another 
for such a cause. The Negro is lynched in the 



24 


South, not to answer the ends of justice, not 
because his alleged offence is deemed worthy of 
death, according to the standards of civilized socie¬ 
ty, but largely in obedience to a bitter race hatred. 






JJerrqop U- 

Acts 7:57. 


“Then they cried with a loud voice, and stopped their 
ears, and ran upon him with one accord, and cast him 
out of the city, and stoned him. ” 


O N last Sabbath I called attention to two contri¬ 
buting factors in accounting for the frequent 
outbreaks of lawlessness in the South against 
the Negro, namely, a low state of civilization, and 
race hatred. In addition to these, one other ought 
to be mentioned,—it is the one that we hear most 
about, and which, with most Southern people and 
with many persons in the North, justifies, or, at least, 
excuses, these outbreaks of lawlessness, and that is 
the conduct of the Negro himself. The way to 
stop these lynchings, we are told, is for the Negro 
to behave himself, to stop committing such terrible 
crimes. 

That the Negro race like every other race has its 
criminal class, no one will deny. The records of 
our courts put that beyond all cavil or doubt. That 
the percentage of Negro criminals is unusually 


26 


large, may also be admitted. It is not surprising 
that it should be so, in view of all the circumstances. 
Any race similarly situated, would show the same 
results. It does not prove, as some enemies of the 
race would like to have people believe, that the Ne¬ 
gro is by nature more criminally inclined than other 
races. The simple fact is, the character of the race 
as a whole, in view of its antecedents, its history in 
this country, as all unbiassed and competent witness¬ 
es will attest, is remarkably good. The black race 
is not a race of criminals. The great majority of 
this race wants to do right, is struggling towards the 
light, towards a higher and better life. The great 
majority of this race has no sympathy whatever 
with crime in any shape or form, and has no desire 
to shield Negro criminals from the just penalty of 
the law. Whenever crimes are committed by Ne¬ 
groes, especially crimes of a glaring nature, a sense 
of shame, of regret, is felt by the better elements of 
the race ; not only because of the crime itself, but 
also because of its tendency to discredit the race, 
and to increase the already unfavorable impression 
which so many have of it. One of the most hopeful 
signs within the race itself is the development of 
this feeling of race pride, this desire to see its mem¬ 
bers conduct themselves properly because of their 
connection with the race. This feeling is growing 
among us, I am glad to say; is becoming more and 


27 


more pronounced. Again and again I have heard 
members of the race say, when crimes have been 
committed of an especially heinous nature, I am 
sorry he is a colored man, or I am glad he is not a 
colored man. That, I say, is a hopeful sign. It 
shows that within the race itself there is a growing 
desire to do right, and to have its members do right. 
In spite of the evils that are charged against us, 
and the evils of which we are actually guilty, the 
indications are that we are steadily rising in the 
scale, that we are coming more and more under the 
influence of the forces that make for righteousness. 
In spite of the dark prophecies concerning us 
by those who are unfriendly to us, the indications 
are that we are coming out all right. And for this 
I am profoundly thankful. There is no danger of 
the Negro relapsing into barbarism, into savagery, 
with the forces at work on him, with the influences 
that are touching him in various ways for his good. 

With these statements, with the distinct under¬ 
standing that we have only the greatest abhorrence 
of crime, whether committed by white men or black 
men, I desire to turn for a moment to the special 
consideration of the alleged crimes of Negroes in 
the South in relation to mob violence. The Negro 
is lynched, it is said, because he is a brute. In a 
recent number of the Independent, a Mrs. L. H. 
Harris, of Georgia, speaks of him thus: “The pioneer 



28 


in colonial days protected his wife and child from 
the wild beast with his gun and knife; but to-day 
in the South every white woman lives next door to 
a savage b.rute who grows more intelligent and 
more insolent in his outrages every year, against 
whom the dilletante laws of Georgia and other 
Southern states offer no protection.” What is it 
that makes the Negro a low brute in the eyes of the 
Southern white man and the Southern white wo¬ 
man? If you take up the catalogue of lynchings in 
the South, you will find out that a very large pro¬ 
portion of them are for such crimes as murder, 
house burning, attempted murder, barn burning, 
stealing,—offenses such as are constantly occurring 
in almost every community. The thing that makes 
the Negro a low brute, is not that he kills, and 
burns, and steals, and commits other depredations; 
there is but one offence in the catalogue of crimes 
that makes him a brute, and that is his raping of 
white women, or his attempt to do so. I know of 
nothing that is more sacred than the virtue of a wo¬ 
man, whether she be-white or black. Every possible 
safeguard ought to be thrown around her. All that 
law can do to render her person sacred should be 
done. I know of no crime that is more heinous in 
the sight of God, and in the sight of man, or that 
should be visited with greater punishment than 
to forcibly wrest that priceless possession from her. 



2 9 


It is a crime against God, it is a crime against man, 
it is a crime against home, it is a crime against so¬ 
ciety, it is a crime against progress and civilization. 
The charge of rape is therefore one of the gravest 
that can possibly be made against an individual, or 
a race. It is a charge not to be lightly entertained, 
or to be accepted without proof of the most posi¬ 
tive character. 

It is under a profound sense of the gravity of the 
charge that I approach the subject, and that I ask 
for a careful and impartial hearing. In entering 
upon this discussion, bear in mind (i) that during 
the great civil war, when the men were away from 
home, and when the women were largely at the 
mercy of the slaves, that not one act, that nothing 
that could be construed even by the most sensitive 
into anything approaching an attempt at raping 
white women, occurred. That is the testimony of 
Southern white men themselves. Here is what 
Senator Vance of North Carolina said, in a lecture 
delivered in Boston before a post of the Grand 
Army of the Republic : “Permit me to call your 
attention to the conduct of the Southern slaves 
during the war. You had been taught by press, 
pulpit and hustings, to believe that they were an 
oppressed, abused and diabolically treated race; 
that their groans daily and hourly appealed to heav¬ 
en, whilst their shackles and their scars testified in 


30 


the face of all humanity against their treatment. 
How was this grave impeachment of a whole peo¬ 
ple sustained, when you went among them to eman¬ 
cipate them from the horrors of their serfdom? 
When the war began, naturally, you expected insur¬ 
rection, incendiary burnings, murder and outrage, 
with all the terrible conditions of servile war. 
There were not wanting fanatical wretches who did 
their utmost to excite it. Did you find it so? 
Here is what you found. Within hearing of the 
guns that were roaring to set them free, with the 
land stripped of its male population, and none 
around them except the aged, the women and chil¬ 
dren, they not only failed to embrace their opportu¬ 
nity of vengeance, but for the most part they failed 
to avail themselves of the chance of freedom itself. 
They remained quietly on our plantations, cultivated 
our fields, and cared for our mothers, wives, and little 
ones, with a faithful love and loyal kindness which, 
in the nature of things, could only be born of sin¬ 
cere good will.” 

In an editorial in the News-Herald of Jacksonville, 
Fla. in 1887, occurs also the following: “The 
Negroes are not retrograding. They are advancing 
wonderfully. Shame on the Southern soldier who 
can ever forget with what almost miraculous fidelity 
they protected the wives, mothers, sisters and 
daughters of the Confederacy from insult, and their 


3i 


property from injury, while they were far away, 
confronting an enemy whose triumph was the libe¬ 
ration of the slaves.” 

By the side of this testimony of Southern men, I 
desire also to place the testimony of a distinguished 
Northern man, whose integrity of character no one 
will call in question, Colonel Thomas Wentworth 
Higginson. In a recent public meeting held in 
Boston, the Colonel expressed himself thus: “It 
was my fortune to lead for two years a regiment of 
colored troops. As I never had occasion to dis¬ 
trust them then, although they were taken from the 
lowest and most ignorant portion of the cotton 
plantations of Carolina, I always shall feel for the 
future that they are to be trusted by their fellow 
citizens; and if their fellow citizens do not trust 
them, it is the fault of the fellow citizens and not 
theirs. If they had those innate tendencies to a li- . 
centious self-indulgence which are constantly an¬ 
nounced in some newspapers, it is absolutely impos¬ 
sible that I should not have found it out. That I 
should have been with them for those two years, 
and never have had even a charge brought against 
their integrity, their honor, and their chastity, is 
sufficient proof to my mind, that there is no occa¬ 
sion for these charges.” 

Bear in mind (2) that since the war down to the 
present, there have been scattered throughout the 


32 


South hundreds of Northern white women who 
have been engaged in the work of teaching the col¬ 
ored people, and that during all these years there 
has never been a single complaint of rape or at¬ 
tempted rape from one of these teachers. For 
some inscrutable reason, while Southern white wo¬ 
men have been assailed, these Northern white wo- 
men, who have made themselves at home among 
the blacks, and who have mingled freely with them, 
have been allowed to go unmolested. I have yet 
to hear the first complaint from these teachers and 
missionaries on this score. And to-day in the 
South, in the midst of all this alleged raping of 
Southern white women, of which we hear so much, 
not a whisper comes up to us from one of these 
Northern white teachers. 

With these facts before us, with the testimony of 
Southern white men themselves as to the conduct 
of the slaves during the war, when the white women, 
their mothers and wives and sisters and daughters, 
were in their keeping, and at their mercy, and the 
testimony of such a man as Col. Higginson, who 
during his two years with his black regiment never 
had even so much as a charge brought against their 
chastity, and the testimony of the great army of 
Northern teachers that has gone up and down and 
in all parts of that land for the last thirty years, as 
to their immunity from insult, assault, or attempted 


33 


assault from those among whom they have laboured, 
let us now turn to the alleged cases of rape that ap¬ 
pear from time to time in our papers. 

Concerning such cases I observe (i) that the im¬ 
pression as to the number is greatly exaggerated. 
Every time we hear of the lynching of a Negro in 
the South, the general impression is that it is for 
what is called, the usual crime. Even a man like 
the Rev. George D. Baker, pastor of the old histor¬ 
ic First Presbyterian church in Philadelphia, is la¬ 
boring ignorantly under that impression, or pur¬ 
posely seeks to mislead his hearers. In a lecture 
delivered by him to his people, May 3, on The Race 
Problem in the South, among other things he said : 
“Between 1886 and 1895 there were 1655 lynchings, 
against 1040 legal executions. Most of these lynch¬ 
ings were in the South, about 80 percent., and un¬ 
doubtedly this has been due to the peculiarly exas¬ 
perating crimes against women, committed by Ne¬ 
groes in the South.” “Most of the lynchings,” he 
says, were in the South. And when he attempts 
to account for them, he expresses no doubt but pos¬ 
itively asserts—his language is—“undoubtedly, this 
has been due to the peculiarly exasperating crimes 
against women, committed by Negroes.” And this 
is the impression that people generally get who 
are not at the pains to inform themselves, and the 
impression which the enemies of the Negro are try- 


34 


ing to make, as a justification or excuse for mob 
violence in the South. Such an impression is en¬ 
tirely false however, as the facts will show. The 
lynching of the Negroes in the South is not due 
wholly, or mainly to their assaults upon white wo¬ 
men. President Julius D. Dreher of Roanoke Col¬ 
lege, Virginia, a native of South Carolina, in a noble 
article published in the New York Sun of May II, 
addresses himself directly to this aspect of the 
problem. He says—‘‘In the Sun of the 6th inst. 
‘A Southerner’ attempts to defend the Georgia mob 
for burning Hose and for hanging Strickland on the 
unsupported testimony of Hose. After saying 
that ‘so long as Negroes outrage white women in 
the South, just so long will they be lynched for it/ 
your correspondent shows a state of amazing igno- 
race by the assertion that ‘they do not lynch Ne¬ 
groes in the South for any other crime.’ He writes 
from Charleston, and I take it for granted that he 
resides in Charleston, S. C. Does he not know that 
the men who lynched Baker, the colored Postmaster 
at Lake City, have just been tried in Charleston for 
that awful crime? Has he already forgotten Phoe¬ 
nix ? Does he not remember that a few years ago 
at Broxton’s Bridge, in South Carolina, two Negroes, 
who were suspected of stealing a Bible from a church, 
met with a cruel death at the hands of white men ? 
And how could he so soon forget the killing of five 


35 


Negro prisoners at Palmetto, Ga., and the recent 
lynching of a dozen or more in Little River county, 
Ark., none of these being even accused of rape. 

But let us take the record of lynchings for the 
last year, as kept by the Chicago Tribune, and pub¬ 
lished in detail early in January, with date, name 
of person, place and crime, so that, if errors are 
made, there is every opportunity to correct them. 
According to the Tribune, which is generally recog¬ 
nized as good authority on this subject, 127 persons 
were lynched in the United States last year, 118 of 
these in the South and 9 in the North. Of the to¬ 
tal number 105 were Negroes, 23 whites, and 2 In¬ 
dians. Of the 127 only 16 were for rape, 7 for at¬ 
tempted rape, and 1 for complicity in rape ; that is, 
only 24 of 127, less than one fifth, were for rape or 
for connection in any way with that crime. For 
murder, there were 61 ; suspected of murder, 13 ; 
theft, 6, and so on. Mistaken identity cost two un¬ 
fortunate creatures their lives. These are the facts, 
and yet a ‘Southerner’ asserts that Negroes are 
lynched in the South only for rape. If this is the 
extent of his knowledge of plain facts, his defence 
of the mob is scarcely worthy of the name.” This 
plain, simple statement of facts ought to set for 
ever at rest the impression so widely prevalent that 
Negroes are constantly seeking to rape white wo¬ 
men in the South, and that it is for that crime that 


36 


they are being lynched. 

I observe (2) that of the cases actually reported, 
of some of them at least, it is known, and well 
known, that relations of intimacy had previously 
existed between the parties, and that the cry of 
rape was raised only after they were discovered. 
That was true of the Negro who was burnt at 
Texarkana. A careful investigation disclosed the 
fact that he had been living with this woman for 
more than a year. In 1893, the following item ap¬ 
peared in an Alabama paper. “A white girl gave 
birth to a Negro baby. A certain Negro was sus¬ 
pected. The girl after some persuasion acknowl¬ 
edged that the suspected Negro was the father of her 
child. She then went on to say, that about a year be¬ 
fore, he raped her; that on more than one occasion 
since she had been compelled tQ submit to him, as he 
threatened to poison the whole family if she told.” 
That Negro was taken out and shot to death on the 
charge of having raped a white girl. Only last year 
I had a talk with a representative Southern white 
woman, one of the bluest of the blue blood, who has 
given special attention to the relation of the races, 
who frankly admitted that she knew, and that others 
knew that some of these alleged cases of rape were 
not rape,—the relation between the parties being 
well understood. That black men, in some instances? 
are living in criminal relations with white women in 


37 


the South, is a fact. The intermarriage of the races 
is not only prohibited by law in the South, but the 
Southern white man, while willing himself to cohabit 
with colored women out of lawful wedlock, is deter¬ 
mined that no Negro shall sustain similar relations 
to white women, and this is the method which they 
take to break up those relations when they are dis¬ 
covered. The cry of rape is raised, and the Negro 
brute, as he is called, is riddled with bullets, or is 
strung up to a tree. That is the real history of 
some of these so-called cases of rape. 

I observe (3) that the cry of rape is sometimes 
raised, when there is no intention or attempt at 
rape. The slightest movement on the part of a 
Negro towards a white woman, is construed into an 
attempt at rape. “Trifles, light as air,” as Shake¬ 
speare has expressed it, “are confirmations strong 
as proofs of holy writ.” A Negro sometime ago 
narrowly escaped lynching because a white woman; 
about dark, hearing footsteps rapidly approaching 
her, as she was walking along an obscure street, and 
turning around and seeing that it was a Negro, 
screamed; she assumed that his purpose was to as¬ 
sault her. It turned out to be a highly respected 
colored man, who was hurrying home from his work, 
with no thought or intention of offering violence to 
any one. Every Negro who now attempts to break 
into a house at night is assumed to have rape in 


38 

view. In the Washington Post of May 20th, occurs 
the following: Mrs. James Wood, of Esom Hill 
District, Ga. sent a ball into a Negro’s brain shortly 
after midnight last night, escaping the clutches ol 
a Negro assailant who was seeking to enter her bed 
room. A few hours after the use of the pistol, Mrs. 
Wood’s husband found the dead body of the Negro 
lying under the window through which he was try¬ 
ing to enter.” It isn’t even alleged that he had 
entered the window, he was only trying to enter, 
and yet he is characterized as a “would be assailant,” 
and a bullet is sent through his brain. What proof 
is there that his purpose in seeking to enter that 
dwelling was criminal assault ? Who knows what 
was in his heart? Is there any necessary connec¬ 
tion between house-breaking and the crime with 
which this man is charged ? When men are found 
breaking into houses at night, the presumption is 
that their design is robbery, not rape. Why should 
that presumption be changed when it comes to the 
Negro? Why should a white man who is found 
breaking into a house at night be dealt with as a 
would be thief, and the Negro who is found doing 
the same thing, be dealt with and characterized as 
“a would be assailant ? ” We have a right to as¬ 
sume that his purpose was theft; we have no right 
to assume that it was rape. And yet that state¬ 
ment was heralded all over the country by the press, 


39 

and accepted as true by hundreds and thousands of 
people. 

I observe (4) that the guilt of these alleged Negro 
rapists is a pure assumption ; there is no proof of 
their guilt. The law assumes that every man is in¬ 
nocent until he is proven guilty ; the fact that he is 
a Negro does not destroy this presumption. The 
law also provides how his guilt shall be established. 
It shall be upon the testimony of credible witnesses, 
before a jury of his peers, and the evidence must be 
so conclusive as to put his guilt beyond a reasona¬ 
ble doubt. If there is a reasonable doubt, after 
hearing all the evidence, he is entitled to an acquit¬ 
tal. That is the law in every state in the Union, 
and it is a good law, based upon reason and com¬ 
mon sense, and simple justice. Until the guilt of a 
prisoner is established according to the forms of law, 
we have no right to assume that he is guilty; it is 
unfair to do so ; it is treating him, not as we are di¬ 
rected to do by the golden rule, as we would like to 
be treated ourselves. And yet this grave charge 
against the Negro is accepted in violation of every 
principle of right and justice and fair play, and by 
men and women, too, even in the North, who pro¬ 
fess to be animated not only by the ordinary prin¬ 
ciples of justice, but by the higher principles of 
Christianity,—ministers of the gospel, elders and 
deacons and members of the church, although they 


40 


know that the alleged Negro rapist is never granted 
a trial, is denied the sacred right guaranteed to him 
under the constitution and laws of the land, the 
right of a fair and impartial trial before a jury of 
his peers. The Negro is never tried according to 
the forms of law ; is never given an opportunity of 
confronting his accusers and of rebutting their test¬ 
imony by witnesses of his own ; his guilt is assumed 
on a bare suspicion, or on the uncorroborated testi¬ 
mony of any white woman who chooses to make 
the charge. Do not misunderstand me ; I am not 
here averring that these charges of rape, and of 
attempted rape, are all unfounded, that no Negro 
has ever attempted to rape a white woman ; it is 
quite possible that some of them may be true; but 
what I do affirm is, that we have no right to assume 
that they are true; the Southern white people 
themselves cannot reasonably expect fair-minded 
men and women anywhere to believe that they are 
true, as long as they are not shown to be true ac¬ 
cording to the forms of law. So far as I am person¬ 
ally concerned, I do not believe, and never will 
believe these charges until the Negro is accorded a 
fair trial before the courts, and his guilt established 
as the law prescribes. That is the position which 
every fair-minded man ought to take; that is the 
position which the whole North ought to take; that 
is the position which the church of Jesus Christ 


41 


ought to take. The South ought to be made to- 
understand that these reports will not be accepted 
as long as they rest upon the verdict of mobs. 
That is not the position, however, of the North ; 
that is not the position of the church; these reports 
are believed. All over the North, you are constant¬ 
ly hearing of the Negro brute in the South, and of 
the perils which beset Southern white women from 
them. It is all accepted as true, and in so far as it 
is accepted, the North as well as the church is guilty 
of condemning the Negro upon charges which have 
never been substantiated according to the method 
of civilized society. The alleged Negro rapist is 
entitled to a fair trial, and until he has had that trial, 
to kill him is a flagrant injustice, a monstrous wrong. 
It makes it impossible for him to answer the charge; 
it makes it impossible for the state to prove the 
charge ; and it ought to make it impossible for any 
reasonable, fair-minded, sensible man to believe the 
charge. It is a significant fact in dealing with this 
phase of our subject, that the only right way, the 
only legal way in which to establish the guilt of the 
suspected Negro rapist, the South persistently re¬ 
fuses to take. It looks as if they were either afraid 
of a judicial investigation, or as if, after all, it wasn’t 
the truth that they were after so much as a desire 
to kill some Negro out of sheer race hatred. Talk 
not of the silence of Negro preachers on the rapists 


42 


of their race, as long as the only evidence of their 
guilt is the verdict of mobs. When it is shown by 
judicial process that they are guilty, then it will be 
time to blame them if they do not speak out. But 
until this is done, let no Negro minister dare to lift 
up his voice in condemnation of these suspected 
members of his race. It would be wrong to do so; 
it would be a virtual admission that the charges were 
true. And this ought never to be done ; never 
ought we to accept the verdict of a mob against 
any man, white or black. 

The importance of subjecting all such cases to a 
rigid examination by the properly constituted au¬ 
thority, as the law prescribes, was never more forci¬ 
bly illustrated than in the case of Charles Busey, 
the Negro who was arrested in this District on the 
charge of committing a rape on a Mrs. Ada Hardy, 
Tuesday, May 23rd, near the Ridge road. This 
man, as you will remember, was carried before Mrs. 
Hardy, and was by her identified as the man who 
committed the assault upon her. Had this occurred 
in almost any of the Southern states, Busey would 
have been forthwith lynched by a mob on the bare, 
uncorroborated testimony of this woman. The fact 
that she said, “This is the man,” would have been suf¬ 
ficient. Subsequent investigation, however, under 
the forms of law, showed that at the very time that 
he was charged with assaulting this woman he was 


43 


miles away. So convincing was the proof of the 
alibi which was set up by him, that at the close of 
the hearing, a motion for his discharge was made* 
and was forthwith granted by the presiding judge. 
Even the editor of the Post, who doesn’t strongly 
object to lynching where the guilt of the prisoner 
is assured, was constrained to say : “We cannot 
escape the thought that in Georgia or Mississippi or 
Arkansas this exculpation might have come too late. 
There is a dreadful suggestion in this Busey case, a 
suggestion which we earnestly commend to our 
Southern friends. There seems no doubt that a 
mistake has been made, and we are bound to believe 
that such a mistake made south of Washington, 
would have resulted in a blunder and an assassina¬ 
tion.” This case the editor of the Post commends 
to the Southern people : I would also earnestly 
commend it to the people of the North as well, who 
are always so ready to believe the damaging state¬ 
ments that are made against the Negro without any 
proof whatever, statements that would not be ac¬ 
cepted against any man in a civilized community, 
not blinded by a bitter prejudice. 

I know it is often alleged that the Negro brute, 
as he is called, confessed his guilt before he was 
executed. In regard to all such alleged confessions, 

I have this to say : (i). They are always to be re¬ 

ceived with the greatest amount of allowance. I 



44 


have very little faith myself in them. Criminals do 
not as a general thing confess their guilt. Even 
where the charge is true, the plea almost invariably 
is, not guilty. Occasionally, we find a criminal 
turning state’s evidence where others are implicated 
beside himself, but even then, it is because pardon 
is promised, because he sees in his confession the 
hope of escaping the punishment of his crime. No 
such motive as this, however, can have any influ¬ 
ence with a Negro charged with rape or attempted 
rape of white women in the South ; for he knows 
that death is inevitable whether he confesses or not. 
Is it not strange that the Negro rapist, unlike all 
other criminals, should always confess his guilt? 
Besides, the motive for the publication of these al¬ 
leged confessions of guilt is apparent to any one 
who takes the time to think. They are put forth 
purposely by the lynchers, in order to furnish a 
kind of excuse or justification for the lynching. 
The people who take part in such acts of lawlessness 
and violence are not such fools but that they realize 
the necessity of providing themselves with some 
ground of justification in the eyes of those who are 
looking on from without. And so, the temptation 
always is to say, he confessed. Of course, if he 
confessed, that puts his guilt beyond all doubt, and 
his execution, though in an unlawful way, doesn’t 
seem quite so bad as lynching an innocent man, or 


45 


one about whose guilt there is some doubt. The 
temptation to do this is so strong, that when I read 
of a lynching I now look almost invariably for the 
statement, “He confessed his guilt.” 

From what I know of criminals and the history 
of crime, and from my knowledge of human nature, 
the presumption is always against these alleged con¬ 
fessions. Criminals do not as a general thing, as I 
have already said, confess their crimes ; and when 
I am asked to believe that these alleged Negro rap¬ 
ists almost invariably confess their guilt, I have a 
right to demand that that fact be substantiated upon 
evidence other than the testimony of their mur¬ 
derers. 

Looking back now over the ground that I have 
covered, In the attempt which I am making to come 
to a correct understanding of the condition of things 
in the South, where all these lynchings are occur¬ 
ring, I called attention to five elements that must be 
taken into consideration in any attempt that may 
be made to solve the problem in which we are all 
so deeply interested, namely, (i). A low state of 
civilization. (2). Race hatred. (3). The debased 
moral condition of the Negro. (4). The belief 
deeply rooted in the mind of the Southern white 
man that the Negro has a place, and the determina¬ 
tion on his part to keep him in his place. And (5), 
the unwillingness on the part of the Negro to be 



46 


thus bound by the white man’s idea as to the place 
which he shall occupy in the social scale. It is out 
of this condition of things that all the troubles in 
the South have come, the conflicts, the race antago¬ 
nisms, the bloody murders, the unjust discrimina¬ 
tion, and all the other unspeakable infamies that 
have disgraced that section of our country for the 
last twenty-five years ; and as long as these condi¬ 
tions continue there will be trouble. And these trou¬ 
bles will increase rather than diminish. These con¬ 
flicts will grow fiercer and more frequent as the years 
go by. All the hellish passions now at work will be 
come more and more inflamed, and the retrogression 
towards savagery, which has already set in, will be¬ 
come more and more pronounced with each passing 
decade. It is impossible to think of the awful pos. 
sibilities that lie wrapped up in the present condi¬ 
tion of things in the South without a shudder. 
That there is danger ahead, danger such as has nev¬ 
er perhaps, before confronted any nation in the 
history of the world, no one can doubt who has 
given any serious consideration to the subject, or 
who knows anything about human nature. The 
present race conflict in the South cannot go on 
without imperilling the interests of both races, and 
without threatening to turnback the hand of pro¬ 
gress on the dial of civilization on this Western 
continent. It is of the utmost importance that this 


4 7 


fact be recognized now, before it is too late, by all 
who are interested in the future of this Republic, 
in the triumph of sentiments of justice and humani¬ 
ty, and in the progress of the kingdom of righteous¬ 
ness in the earth. God, in every possible way is 
saying, and has been saying during the last twenty- 
five or thirty years to this nation, in the repeated 
acts of lawlessness that have disgraced the South, 
in the bloody murders that have occurred there 
from time to time, in the horrible burnings and tor¬ 
turings of helpless and defenceless victims without 
a hearing, in all the infamous laws that have been 
enacted with a view of nullifying the great Amend¬ 
ments to the Constitution, and in the wail that has 
continually gone up from the oppressed millions of 
Negroes in this land,—in all these ways, God has 
been saying to this nation, and is still saying, beware; 
take warning; there is danger ahead. And there is 
danger ahead ; danger, not only from the Negro, 
but also from the savage instincts within the breast 
of the white man himself. These dangers may be 
averted. There is yet time to avert them. It is 
our duty, one and all, to seek in every possible and 
righteous way to avert them. 

With this end in view, two questions suggest 
themselves, questions that should command the 
most serious and prayerful consideration of all, 
white and black alike, (i). Is there any remedy 


48 


for this condition of things? And (2), if so, what 
is the remedy? The discussion of these questions 
I shall have to reserve for another discourse, as the 
time is already far spent. This may be said 
however, no more important questions can possibly 
engage our attention, or the attention of the Amer¬ 
ican people, or of the Christian church. Upon the 
answer that is given to them will depend the future 
of this Republic, and the character of the civiliza¬ 
tion that is to prevail here. If Christianity has 
sufficient hold upon the conscience of the nation to 
mould public sentiment in the interest of right, and 
justice, and humanity, the Republic will stand ; oth¬ 
erwise it will go down, and ought to go down. In 
the settlement of this question, the very foundation 
principles of Christianity are involved, principles 
that no nation can disregard, and hope to have the 
favor of Almighty God resting upon it. For it is 
written, “The nation that will not serve the Lord,” 
that will not shape its course according to his Word, 
according to the great and immutable principles of 
his moral government, “shall perish.” It is not 
simply, therefore, the future of the Negro that is 
involved, that would be a small matter with some; 
but of the nation, as well. The seriousness of the 
whole matter lies in the fact that the issue under- 
lying it is a moral one. In the last analysis, it is a 
question of right; and the nation or people that will 


49 


not do right, is doomed. I thank God that the Ne¬ 
gro, brought here against his will, is now so wrapped 
up with the very life of the nation, that his rights 
cannot be permanently denied him, and the nation 
go on in peace and prosperity. Continued, persist¬ 
ent injustice to him means the moral decline of the 
nation, and therefore its ultimate extinction. Talk 
about this Negro question as we will, seek to mini¬ 
fy it as we will, to thrust it in the background as 
we will, in it nevertheless are the issues of life or 
death for the republic It is bound to make it, or 
to break it. It will develop and strengthen what is 
best in it, or vice versa, it will develop and strength¬ 
en what is worst in it. It is bound to affect it for 
weal or woe. Out of the struggle through which we 
are now passing, it will come forth invigorated, and 
fully imbued with the spirit of liberty, of equality, 
of fraternity for all of its citizens, irrespective of 
race, color, or previous condition ; or it will emerge 
from it shriveled and shrunken under the blighting 
influence of a spirit of oppression, of injustice, of 
inhumanity. 

“The tissues of the life to be, 

We weave in colors all our own : 

And in the field of destiny 
We reap as we have sown." 

That is true of nations as of individuals. This 
nation must do right,—or else it must suffer the 
consequences. The moment it sets up any other 




5o 


standard, that moment its decline begins. The test 
of its fitness to endure will be found in the manner 
in which it settles this Negro question. Upon this 
issue, it will sink or swim, survive or perish. 




3ernQou HI. 

Acts 7:57. 

“Then they cried with a loud voice, and stopped their 
ears, and ran upon him with one accord, and cast him 
out of the city, and stoned him.” 

I N my last discourse, after calling attention to the 
awful possibilities that lie wrapped up in a con¬ 
tinuance of the present condition of things in 
the South, and of the duty of all who are interested 
in the welfare of our common country, and of the 
progress of the kingdom of righteousness in the 
earth, to do whatever they can to avert the impend¬ 
ing danger, two questions were asked—(1). Is there 
any remedy for the present condition of things? 
And (2), if so, What is the remedy? And these are 
the questions which I desire to take up and discuss 
this morning. 

I. Is there any remedy? I believe there is. 
The present strained condition between the races 
in the South is not, I believe, an incurable one. 
There is nothing in the nature of the Southern white 
man as such, or in the nature of the Negro as such, 
which renders it impossible for them to live togeth- 


52 


er in harmony, and in mutual respect for each 
other. These two races have lived together 
harmoniously in the past, and they may in the fu¬ 
ture. There is every reason to believe they will 
under proper influences, and after sufficient time 
has elapsed for the passions to subside, and for rea¬ 
son and conscience to assert themselves. Already, 
as a matter of fact, there are Southern white men,— 
men who were cradled in the lap of slavery, and 
who fought for the Lost Cause, who have come, 
in the process of development, to where they find 
no difficulty in thus mingling with their black fel¬ 
low citizens and neighbors. I remember some years 
ago reading a very interesting letter from a mission¬ 
ary of the Southern Presbyterian Church who was 
labouring in Brazil. He spoke particularly of the 
fact that he was raised in the South, where he had 
been taught to look down upon colored people as 
inferiors, and to treat them as such, but that since 
his stay in Brazil a great change had come over him 
in this respect, so much so that he hardly knew 
himself. “The questions that perplex us in the 
South,” he said, “never rise to trouble us here.” 
And, if I may be permitted to speak from personal 
experience, I can truthfully say, that one of the few 
white men that I have had close personal contact 
with during my life, and who was as free from col- 
orphobia as any white man I ever saw, was a South- 



53 


ern man. And the same may also be said of some 
of the most refined and cultivated Southern white 
women, whom I have had the pleasure of meeting. 
These, and other examples that might be adduced, 
show what the possibilities are, what may take 
place under favorable conditions. 

II. What is the remedy? How is this change to 
be brought about ? How are the present discordant 
elements to be harmonized ? Out of this chaos of 
conflicting passions and interests, how are we to get 
order, beauty, harmony ? 

From a careful study of the situation, it is evident 
that certain things must occur, if there is to be a 
change for the better, (i). The grade of civiliza¬ 
tion in the South must be raised. (2). The white 
man must modify his views of the Negro, or the 
Negro must modify his views of himself, i. e., must 
be willing to give up his ideas and accept the white 
man’s ideas as to what he shall be and do, or as to 
what his social, civil, and political status shall be. 
(3). This element of hate in the white man must 
be eliminated. And (4), the Negro must be elevat¬ 
ed, the general plane upon which he lives must be 
raised. 

Let us look at these several elements for a mo¬ 
ment :—(1). As to raising the plane of civilization 
in the South. That there is room, and very great 
room for improvement in this respect will hardly be 


54 


called in question by any one acquainted with the 
facts. In every direction, the evidences of a low 
grade of civilization are apparent, and these are 
multiplying rather than diminishing. Neither will 
it be doubted that an improvement in this respect 
will be helpful in dealing with the race problem. 
As the grade of civilization goes up, the brutal in¬ 
stincts of our nature will become more and more 
subdued—the tendency, so widely prevalent in the 
South, to resort to brute force in the settlement of 
wrongs or supposed wrongs, will assert itself less 
and less, and there will grow up a greater respect 
for law and order. 

(2) As to the Southern white man’s modifying 
his view of the Negro. Before asking any man to 
change or modify his views on any matter, we 
ought first to satisfy ourselves as to the character 
of his views:—Are they right views, or are they 
wrong views ? If they are right, if they have reason 
and common sense and justice on their side, we have 
no right to ask him to change them ; if they are not 
right however, we may ask him tochange or modify 
them, yea, it is our duty to do so. To the character 
of the Southern white man’s viewof the Negro I de¬ 
sire therefore in this connection to direct attention. 

The Southern white man thinks that the Negro 
belongs to an inferior race, an inferiority not based 
upon circumstances, but inherent, inborn; in other 


55 


words, that God created him inferior, and that in 
virtue of that inferiority, it is his duty to treat him 
as an inferior. The meaning of this if I understand 
it correctly, is, that the rules which obtain between 
one white man and another white man in their re¬ 
lations and dealings with each other, are not the 
rules which ought to obtain when the white man 
comes to deal with the colored man. A difference 
ought to be made, and that difference is due to the 
fact that the one is superior, and the other is inferi¬ 
or. That the underlying conception of the relation 
which the white race sustains to the black race, as 
here expressed, is untenable, is without foundation 
in fact, is evident from the Word of God. As we 
are living in a land where there are 135,000 minis¬ 
ters, 187,000 churches, and over 26,000,000 commu¬ 
nicants in these churches ; a land where there are 
1,305,000 Sabbath school teachers, and 10,000,000 
Sabbath school scholars; where there are more than 
50,000 societies of Christian Endeavor and upwards 
of 3,500,000 members of such societies, we may as¬ 
sume that the Bible will have some weight in de¬ 
termining this question. (1). According to this 
book, which we receive as the inspired word of God, 
and the only infallible rule of faith and practice, 
God “hath made of one blood all nations of men,” 
or as it is rendered in the Revised Version, “and 
made of one every nation of men.” And this 


56 


agrees with the statement in Genesis as to the ori¬ 
gin of the race. “And God said, Let us make man 
in our image, after our likeness; and let them have 
dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the 
fowls of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the 
earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth 
upon the earth. And God created man in his own 
image, in the image of God created he him ; male 
and female created he them.” 

The man thus created was Adam ; and “for him 
God made an help-meet. He caused a deep sleep 
to fall upon him; and took one of his ribs and closed 
up the flesh instead thereof; and the rib which the 
Lord God had taken from the man he made a wo¬ 
man, and brought her unto the man. And the man 
said, this is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my 
flesh ; she shall be called woman, because she was 
taken out of the man.” In the third chapter and 
twentieth verse, we have also this record : “And the 
man called his wife’s name Eve; because she was 
the mother of all living,” 

Whatever views may be entertained as to the ex¬ 
istence of a Pre-Adamite race, the record in Genesis, 
seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth makes it perfectly 
plain that no such race at present exists upon the 
earth. For in Genesis 7:23 it is recorded : “And 
every living thing was destroyed which was upon 
the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and 


57 


creeping things, and fowls of heaven; and they 
were destroyed from the earth; and Noah only left 
and they that were with him in the ark.” The 
sixth verse of the same chapter tells us who were 
with him : “And Noah went in, and his sons, and 
his wife, and his sons’ wives with him, into the ark.” 
According to the first statement, all who existed on 
the earth prior to the flood descended from Adam 
and Eve, all were created in the image of God. 
There isn’t a hint or suggestion, or anything that 
could in any way be twisted into even so much as 
the semblance of an argument in support of the be¬ 
lief that some races were created superior to others, 
in the sense in which that term is used, by the 
Southern whites in dealing with the race question. 
According to the second statement, all races now 
upon the earth, have descended from the family of 
Noah ; and since the Negro exists he must there¬ 
fore have also come from that family. If the Bible 
is to be accepted as authority, the equality of the 
Negro race in the great human family, with all oth¬ 
er races, is thus put beyond all cavil or doubt* 
From the same parent stock as all the other races, 
he has come. When the flood subsided, and Noah, 
and his three sons and their families came out of the 
ark, we have a miniature picture of the whole hu¬ 
man race,—you were there and I was there, the 
white man was there,—the Southern white man and 


58 


the Northern white man; we were all there, white 
and black alike; and we were there not as superiors 
and inferiors, but on terms of perfect equality, as 
members of the same family, having the same com¬ 
mon rights and privileges. 

(2) According to this Book which we receive as the 
inspired word of God, the moral standard which it 
reveals as the rule of life is the same for all races of 
men. The Ten Commandments, the Sermon on 
the Mount, the great principles enunciated in the 
Thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians, are binding 
alike upon all races. The moral standard isn’t one 
thing for the white race and another thing for the 
black race ; it is the same for both. Thou shalt not 
kill. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt 
not bear false witness. Thou shalt not covet- 
Honor thy father and thy mother, are binding upon 
all men of all races. So far as the moral law is con¬ 
cerned, in its application, as revealed in the word of 
God, there isn’t a single thing which favors in any 
way this idea of one race being created inferior to 
another. If such a thing existed we would natural¬ 
ly expect to find the difference recognized in the 
standard of life prescribed for each, but no such 
difference is found. Since both are required to con¬ 
form to the same standard, it is unphilosophical to 
assume such a difference. The Southern white man 
cannot consistently hold the Negro to the same 


59 


moral standard as he does himself, and at the same 
time affirm his natural inferiority. 

(3). In the plan of salvation which this book re¬ 
veals, and which we receive as the inspired Word of 
God, no such difference is recognized. All men of all 
races stand upon precisely the same footing. All are 
invited. All are equally welcomed. The conditions 
imposed are the same for all. The same gospel is 
to be preached to all. All nations, the apostles were 
directed to go and disciple. And in the kingdom 
which the Lord Jesus Christ has set up in this 
world, we are distinctly told, “There is neither 
Greek, nor Jew, barbarian, Scythian, bond, nor free.” 
“There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are 
all called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, 
one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all, 
who is above all, and through all, and in you all.” 

The Southern white man thinks that the rules 
which obtain in the relations of white men with 
white men, are not the rules which ought to obtain 
in the relations of white men with black men. This 
book, which is God’s book, however, recognizes no 
such distinction. It says, “Thou shalt love the 
Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy 
soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and 
great commandment. And the second is like unto 
it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On 
these two commandments hang all the law and the 


6o 


prophets.” And to the question, “And who is my 
neighbour?” The Lord Jesus answered by relating 
the parable of the Good Samaritan, which was in¬ 
tended particularly to show the spirit that should 
bind all men together, of whatever race or national¬ 
ity. The neighbour, that we are to love as our¬ 
selves, is not the member of our own family, or 
nation, or race only; but any and everybody, of 
whatever race or nation,—whether white, or black, 
or red, or brown, makes no difference. And the 
same is required bv the rule laid down by Jesus in the 
Sermon on the Mount, “Whatsoever ye would that 
men should do to you, do ye even so to them.” It 
doesn’t say, white men are to treat white men as 
they would like to be treated, or that black men 
are to treat black men as they would like to be 
treated, but man as man in his relations with his 
fellow men is to be governed by this rule. 

The Southern white man thinks the Negro ought 
not to enjoy the same civil and political rights as 
white men enjoy. The result is, in travelling on 
railroads, he is not only put off to himself, but is 
forced to accept for the same fare very much inferi¬ 
or accommodations to those which are accorded to 
white passengers. And, in hotel accommodations 
and restaurant service along the route of travel, no 
provision whatever is made for him. He must carry 
something to eat with him, or else he must endure 


6i 


the pangs of hunger until he reaches his journey’s 
end. Hence also, the bull-dozing, and other meth¬ 
ods of intimidation that have been resorted to to 
keep him from the polls, and the various constitu¬ 
tional amendments that have been enacted to de¬ 
prive him of the suffrage. Such a view is obviously, 
however, inconsistent with the spirit of the Decla¬ 
ration of Independence, is in direct violation of the 
provisions of the Constitution, and is contrary to 
the genius of republican or democratic institutions. 
In the Declaration of Independence, it is asserted : 
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all 
men are created equal; that they are endowed by 
their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that 
among these, are life, liberty, and the pursuit of 
happiness; that to secure these rights, governments 
are instituted among men, deriving their just pow¬ 
ers from the consent of the governed.” Article 
XIV. of the Constitution declares: “All persons 
born or naturalized in the United States, and sub¬ 
ject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the 
United States and of the State wherein they reside.” 
Article XV. declares: “The right of citizens of the 
United States to vote shall not be denied or abridg¬ 
ed by the United States, or by any state, on account 
of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” 
There are no rights guaranteed to white men under 
the constitution, that are not equally guaranteed to 


62 


the colored man. All citizens, whether white or 
black, stand upon the same footing, are entitled to 
equal consideration. Distinction among citizens, 
in rights, in privileges, is the very thing which the 
democratic idea of government, which has had such 
a wonderful growth within the century, is intended 
to combat. From these and other considerations 
that might be adduced, it is evident that the South¬ 
ern white man’s view of the Negro is wrong. It is 
contrary to the Word of God ; and it is contrary to 
the expressed provisions and declarations of the 
Constitution. The Negro is not by nature inferior 
as he thinks; nor is he unworthy of being treated 
as other men are treated. He has a good heart, and 
if he is encouraged, will measure up to his respon. 
sibilities and opportunities just as other men. 

(3). As to the Negro modifying his views of 
himself. What are his views of himself? (1). He 
believes that he is a man ; that the same God who 
created the white man created him ; that in Genesis, 
when it is said, “in the image ol God created he him, 
male and female created he them,” he was included 
in that statement; and that whatever of dignity 
therefore there is that attaches to man as man, as a 
being created in the image of God, attaches to him. 

(2). He believes that he is entitled to be treated 
as a man,—humanely, civilly, with the ordinary con¬ 
sideration which one human being owes to another. 


63 


(3) He believes that he has the same right to 
live here as the white man has; that this is just as 
much his home as it is the white man’s home. 
This is the only home that he has ever known. He 
has been here as long as the white man has been 
here. He has laboured as hard for it as the white 
man has laboured. 

(4) . He believes that he is an American citi¬ 
zen ; and that as such, he is entitled to enjoy the 
same rights and privileges as other citizens of the 
Republic. 

(5) . He believes, that to the measure of his char¬ 
acter and capacity, the same opportunities ought to 
be afforded him of making an honest living, and of 
improving himself as are afforded to other men. 

Is he right or wrong in these assumptions? Are 
these things true of him, or are they not? Is he a 
man? Is he entitled to be treated as a man ? Is 
this his home as much as it is the home of the white 
man ? Is he an American citizen, and is he entitled 
to all the rights and privileges that are enjoyed by 
other citizens? Ought he to be free as other men 
are free, to make a place for himself in the struggle of 
life, conditioned only by his character and capacity ? 
If these questions are answered in the affirmative, 
as they must be by every candid, right thinking 
person, then it is not only unreasonable to expect 
the Negro to modify his views of himself, or to re. 


6 4 


cede from his present position; it would be wrong 
to ask him to do so. He could not take any other 
position, than the one he has taken and maintain 
his own self-respect or the respect of others. 

(4) . As to eliminating this element of hate from 
the breast of the white man for the Negro. Race 
hatred, whether by white men for black men, or 
black men for white men, is wrong. It is an evil, 
an unqualified and unmitigated evil, that ought to 
be eradicated as soon as possible. It is bound to 
work injury to both races. No good can possibly 
come from it. Unless it can be removed, very little 
progress can be mad* towards the amicable settle¬ 
ment of this grave question, toward a better under¬ 
standing between the races. That a change here is 
desirable will be readily admitted. 

(5) . As to the moral elevation of the Negro. 
That there is need, and very great need in this di¬ 
rection, the Negro himself frankly admits. He 
not only realizes that there is great room for im. 
provement, but to his credit, let it be said, he 
has not been indifferent to the opportunities that 
have been afforded him for self-improvement. The 
moral elevation of the Negro is important not only 
for the Negro but also for the white man. If these 

wo races are to live side by side, neither can be 
ndifferent to the moral status of the other. It is 
to the interest of the white man to have this black 


65 


race elevated. Character is what the black man 
needs, and character is what the white man needs : 
and when you have developed the right kind of 
character in each, one great step will have been 
taken towards the solution of this race problem. 

Reverting now to the question with which we be¬ 
gan, namely, What is the remedy for the present 
condition of things in the South ? How is a change 
for the better to be brought about ? I answer, it is to 
be largely through education,—social, political, mor¬ 
al, religious. There is need for light, for knowledge, 
for careful instruction, line upon line, and precept 
upon precept, here a little and there a little. 
It is by the plain, simple, earnest, faithful presenta¬ 
tion of the truth, that we can hope to permanently 
dislodge error, and so make it possible for the right 
to triumph. The prayer of the psalmist was : “ O 
send out thy light and thy truth. ” And that 
is what is needed to-day—light, truth—if these 
two races are ever to be lifted to where they can 
look each other in the face and feel toward each 
other as one human being should feel toward another 
human being, as one brother man should feel to¬ 
wards another brother man. A campaign of educa¬ 
tion, wisely, intelligently, fearlessly conducted, is 
what is needed. 

Concerning this education, I observe (i). That 
it is to be partly destructive, and partly construe- 


66 


tive. In the soil of the South certain ideas were 
planted more than two centuries ago, and they have 
been growing during all these years. These ideas 
grew out of the institution of slavery. Under such 
a system, very naturally, the Negro came to be re¬ 
garded in a certain light, and to be treated in a cer¬ 
tain way. He was scarcely looked upon as a hu¬ 
man being. He was regarded as a mere beast of 
burden, a chattel, a piece of property, a thing to be 
bought and sold, with no rights which white men 
were bound to respect. That condition of things 
lasted for nearly two hundred and fifty years. Dur¬ 
ing all that time the Negro had no voice in any¬ 
thing, he was not even permitted to say what dis¬ 
position should be made of himself. In 1863, how¬ 
ever, slavery was abolished, and the Ne¬ 
gro became a free man, and later an American 
citizen, clothed with the sacred right of the ballot. 
In view of this change, it is evident, that the old 
ideas which the masters had of the Negro as a 
slave, are entirely out of place in the new order of 
things. These old ideas therefore must be uproot¬ 
ed, and ideas in harmony with the new order of 
things must be implanted. The Negro, e. g., is not 
a mere beast of burden : he is a man, a human be 
ing, belonging to the same category as the white 
man. The Southern white man needs to be educa¬ 
ted into a recognition of this fact, into the habit of 


6 ; 


thinking of the Negro as a human being, and not as 
some lower form of existence that puts him beyond 
the ordinary civilities of life. During the anti¬ 
slavery agitation in this country, one of the things 
upon which special emphasis was laid in the begin¬ 
ning of that struggle was, the fact that the Negro 
was a man. As the abolitionists went from place to 
place they kept saying to the people: The Negro 
is a man. The Negro is a man. The Negro is a 
man. And as that fact sank into their hearts, as 
they came to realize that the Negro was a human 
beingjust as they were, they came tosee the inquity 
of the slave system, and threw their influence 
against it. And so, in this work of education in the 
South, the same thing must be done. The humanity 
of the Negro must be held up and emphasized. Over 
and over again that thought must be presented. 
Everywhere that gospel must be proclaimed. You 
remember Whittier’s noble lines in “ The Branded 
Hand:” 


[n tby lone and long night-watches, sky 
above and wave below. 

Thou dids't learn a higher wisdom than 
the babbling schoolmen know; 

God’s stars and silence taught thee, as 
his angels only can, 

That the one, sole, sacred thing beneath 
the cope of heaven is Man. 


68 


That he who treads profanely on the 
scrolls of law and creed, 

In the depth of God’s great goodness 
may find mercy in his need; 

But woe to him who crushes the Soul 
with chain and rod, 

And herds with lower natures the awful 
form of God. ” 


And that is just what the Southern white man 
has been doing to the Negro, and the lesson which 
he needs to learn is, that the Negro is not to be 
herded “ with lower natures, ” that he is a man. and 
must be recognized as such. 

Again, the Negro is no longer a slave: he is a free 

man, and an American citizen. As a free man and 

an,^American citizen there are certain rights thstA^ 
-Vwrvvvs 7 

o Southern white man must beoeducated to recognize 

^and respect. He may not want to do it: he may 
find it difficult to bring himself to do it,—he will 
find it difficult to do, but since it is the right thing 
to do it ought to be done. And the sooner the 
effort is made to mould public sentiment in accord¬ 
ance with what is right, the better it will be. The 
whole trend of education in the South should be to¬ 
wards bringing that section to conform its notions 
to the new order of things which has been brought 
about by freedom and which is required by the 
genius of our institutions. 


6 9 


Again, we are living under a republican form of 
government,—a government “ of the people, by the 
people, for the people.” The Southern white man 
needs to be educated to understand that the term 
“ people,” means not the white people only, but the 
black people as well, that all are included, without 
distinction of race or color. This is a white man's 
government, is the shibboleth of Southern Demo¬ 
cracy. That sentiment is widely prevalent in the 
South. And its meaning is that the same condition 
of things which existed during slavery shall be per¬ 
petuated under freedom. The aim is to make the 
Negro a political nonentity, to eliminate him entirely 
from politics. But the Negro cannot be justly elim- 
ined from politics under a republican form of govern¬ 
ment. To do so would be unrepublican. And 
therefore that santfiynent cannot i^e,^jLo\Y£d to^tand : % 
it must be changed. The Southern white man must . 
be so educated that he will come to recognize the 
justness of the Negro’s claim to equal recognition 
under the constitution. The Negro is here, and he is 
here to stay : and to stay not as the civil and po¬ 
litical inferior of the white man, but as his equal 
under the laws. And sooner or later that fact must 
be accepted, not in one section of the country,—in 
the North and not in the South,—but in every 
section of it. The right of the Negro as an 
American citizen must be recognized ; and we 


70 


must begin everywhere, but especially in the South, 
to educate public sentiment with that end in view. 
The education of which I am speaking you will per¬ 
ceive, »s not education in the ordinary sense of the 
term, in the knowledge of books, as carried on in the 
schools,—in the common schools, in the academies, 
colleges and universities, but education in the know¬ 
ledge of the rights of man and respect for those 
rights; in the knowledge of the great principles un¬ 
derlying democratic institutions, as enunciated in 
the Declaration of Independence and in the Consti¬ 
tution, and in respect for those principles. 

What are some of these rights and principles ? 
The right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happi¬ 
ness; freedom of speech; freedom of the press; the 
right of pec tion; the right to a speedy and public 
trial by an impartial jury; the right not to be depriv¬ 
ed of life, liberty, or property, without due process 
of law; the right to the equal protection of the law; 
the right not to be discriminated against in the 
franchise, on account of race, color, or previous con¬ 
dition of servitude. These are principles that ought 
to be dear to every true American, and they are 
principles that lie at the very foundation of demo¬ 
cratic institutions. They are principles, however, 
that are but slightly regarded in the Southern sec¬ 
tion of our country. There is no freedom of speech 
there, no freedom of the press. Even white men, 


7 


Northern white men or Southern white men, are 
not allowed to express sentiments not in keeping 
with Southern, pro-slavery ideas. The man who 
does it does it at his peril. The reason why R. R. 
Tolbert of South Carolina is to day an exile from his 
home, is because he dared to differ with his neigh¬ 
bors. The intolerance of the South is one of its most 
characteristic features. There is no equal protec¬ 
tion of the law, there is no impartial trial by 
jury. There may be for white men, but so far as the 
Negro is concerned, it is never thought of. There 
is scarcely a single principle that goes to make up 
a government of the people, by the people, for the 
people, that is not ruthlessly trampled underfoot in 
the South. There is great and pressing need there¬ 
fore for the most earnest and aggressive educational 
work in that section along the lines that I have indi¬ 
cated. And the importance of the work lies, not 
only in its effects upon the South, but upon the 
whole country. You can not trample upon demo¬ 
cratic principles in one section of the country, with¬ 
out feeling its injurious effects in every other part 
of it. The whole nation, therefore, is interested in 
this work of educating the South in respect for the 
rights of man, and for the great principles of demo¬ 
cracy. 

I observe (2) that this work of education is to. be 
mainly carried on by ministers of the gospel, by 


editors and teachers. They can do more than any 
other class of people to create a healthy public 
sentiment in favor of justice and humanity. To 
the ministers, especially, we have a right to look. 
They are God’s representatives, called and com¬ 
missioned to be the teachers of mankind, in all mat¬ 
ters affecting character and life. The book which 
they are to expound is the Bible, the word of God, 
which the apostle tells us is “ profitable for doc¬ 
trine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in 
righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, 
thoroughly furnished unto all good works. ” The 
men who fill the pulpits in the South, know as well as 
they know that they exist, that the manner in 
which the Negro is treated there is not in harmony 
with the letter or spirit of that Word. It is their 
duty therefore, to bring the teaching of that Word 
to bear upon present conditions, however unpopu¬ 
lar it may be to do so. The gospel, that teaches 
the fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of man, the 
spirit of sympathy, of love, of the strong bearing the 
infirmities of the weak, of the more fortunate com¬ 
ing to the help of the less fortunate, cannot be 
faithfully preached in the South without being 
blessedof God. It may not be popular at first, but it 
is bound sooner or later to triumph, if persisted in. 
God has promised that his word shall not return 
unto him void. I have the greatest faith in the 


73 


efficacy of God’s truth to win its way and bear 
down all poposition, if it is faithfully presented. 

The press can also do much in this campaign of 
education. If the men who are at the head of the 
daily and weekly journals will use the opportunity 
which they have of inculcating right principles, of 
keeping before the people the great ideas underlying 
democratic institutions, of insisting upon law and 
order, and respect for the rights of others,—for the 
humblest as well as the greatest, a new order of 
things will very soon set in. 

The teacher can also aid very materially in this 
work, the teachers in the common schools as well a 
the higher schools of learning. In the higher schools 
of learning, where the leaders are being trained, 
what a splendid opportunity is afforded to a wise 
teacher who is anxious to correct false impres¬ 
sions, and to set things in their true light, as 
they ought to exist under our form of govern¬ 
ment, and under our Chrisitian civilization, to make 
his influence felt. And in the common schools 
the teacher can also be of very great service in help¬ 
ing to remove this bitter race feeling. If they 
have come to see and feel rightly themselves, they 
will have an influence over the children committed 
to their care. In the New England states, very 
much has been done through the schools to incul¬ 
cate on the children sentiments of kindness to 


74 


dumb animals. There has been a wonderful change j 
in these states in this respect. And in the South, j 
if the teachers would set themselves to work, a 
similar change could be wrought in the sentiments of 
the white child for the colored child. If the teachers 1 
themselves spoke respectfully of colored people,if the 
tendency on the part of white children to apply op¬ 
probrious ephithets to colored children and to col- j 
ored people in general, was rebuked by the teacher ! 
it would have its effect, and would hasten the com¬ 
ing of better times. The union of these forces,—the 
working together of preacher, and teacher, and 
editor towards a reconstructed South founded upon 
sentiments of justice and humanity for all,—white 
and black alike, is what is needed, and what must ; 
come sooner or later, if our present troubles are 
ever to end, if peace and harmony are to prevail. 

I observe (3), that the place for this work to be¬ 
gin, is in the church, i. e., among the professed fol¬ 
lowers of Christ. If there is any class of persons 
anywhere that we have a right to expect to act 
upon Christian principles, to treat a fellow being as 
he ought to be treated, to accord to him all his 
rights, it is those who make up the Christian Church. 
Christ’s own words are, “Ye are the light of the 
world. A ^ity set on a hill cannot be hid. Neith¬ 
er do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, 
but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all 








7 5 


that are in the house. Let your light so shine be¬ 
fore men that they may see your good works, and 
glorify your Father which is in heaven.” The 
church, therefore is the place to begin this work. 

Let the ministers, and elders, and deacons, and 
members, those who have come out frorp the world, 
and have taken upon themselves the name of Jesus, 
first get right themselves on this subject ; let them 
accord to the Negro his rights as a citizen; let 
them treat him as he ought to be treated, as a man 
and brother, as is required by God's most holy law, 
which they profess to believe and to follow, and it 
will not be difficult to get those on the outside to 
fall into line. The church is in a position to wield 
a tremendous influence in this matter, if it will only 
arouse itself to a sense of its responsibilities, and 
will have the courage to do what it knows to be 
right. It ought to lead in this matter. Its mem¬ 
bers ought to set the example to those who make 
no profession. The time has come, when Christian 
men and women iri the South should cease to con¬ 
sult their prejudices, to be influenced by the senti¬ 
ments about them, and should look to God’s Word, 
to the example of Jesus Christ, and the great piin. 
ciples which he enunciated and for which his king¬ 
dom stands, for light, for guidance in dealing with 
this race problem, If Christianity is worth any¬ 
thing it ought to be able to adjust these differences; 


;6 


it is able to adjust them if the principles underlying 
it are followed. Here is the church’s opportunity 
of demonstrating the power of Christianity to deal 
with the most difficult social problem. It was Bis¬ 
hop Haygood, I believe, who once said, “In the 
light of the Ten Commandments and the Sermon 
on the Mount, this race problem may be solved.” 
And it may be, but in order to do this the Ten Com¬ 
mandments, and the Sermon on the Mount, must 
have back of them a living church—a church made 
up of men and women who are willing to take them 
up, and put them into their hearts, and live them 
out, regardless of whether they accord with the 
sentiments about them or not. The question,, for 
the church, is not as to whether it is a popular 
thing to treat the Negro as a man, as a human be¬ 
ing, as a brother ; as to whether it accords with tra¬ 
dition, with custom, with public sentiment, but is it 
right? Is it as he ought to be treated? Is it as 
Jesus Christ would treat him if he were acting in 
our stead? “Back to Christ,” is the cry of certain 
theologians to day,—and that is where the church 
needs to get in dealing with this race problem,— 
back to the spirit of Christ, back to the great prin¬ 
ciples which lie enunciated for the government of 
man,—back to the fatherhood of God, to the broth¬ 
erhood of man ; back to loving our neighbor as our¬ 
selves, to doing by others as we would have them 




77 


do by us. These are the great principles upon 
which the church ought to stand, and the spirit in 
which it ought to address itself to every problem, 
whether it be the Negro problem, or any other pro* 
blem. In that spirit, it is bound to conquer. 
There are no difficulties that it may not overcome. 
If things do not get better in the South, the church 
will be largely responsible for it. It will be because 
it fails to do its duty,—to lift up a standard for the 
people, to let its light shine. 

Along with this should also be coupled strenuous 
efforts to improve the system of public education, 
both as to the quality of the teaching force, and the 
length of the school term for both races; and also 
to multiply and encourage all agencies, such as tem¬ 
perance societies, associations for the promotion of 
good citizenship etc. that will tend to strengthen 
what is good, and to counteract what is evil in the 
community. 

A campaign of education, wisely, intelligently, 
lovingly conducted along the lines indicated, and 
by the forces enumerated will do much towards 
bringing about a better condition of things in the 
South, toward adjusting race differences. 

Wonders can be accomplished if we will only 
make up our minds to go steadily forward as God 
gives us the light, and with but one thought before 
us,—the thought of pleasing him, of doing what is 


78 


right. Those who are to work among the whites, 
and those who are to work among the colored 
should each come to the task with a due sense of 
the importance—the transcendent importance of 
the work, and with an earnest desire to succeed. 
These strifes and dissensions must cease; these 
race feuds must die out;—but not by the sacrifice 
of a single principle, not by trampling upon the 
rights of any one; but by each race doing what is 
right, by the triumph of law and order, and Chris¬ 
tian principles,—the principles of the Decalogue 
and the Sermon on the Mount. I have faith in 
those great principles, and faith in their ultimate 
triumph. The task is not an easy one however; nor 
can it be accomplished in a day, or a week, or a 
month, or a year, or a decade of years; nor will it 
be accomplished without hardships, sufferings, dis¬ 
couragements. Bryant evidently foresaw all this 
when he penned his noble poem entitled “The Bat¬ 
tle-Field.” 

“Once this soft turf, this rivulet’s sands. 

Were trampled by a hurrying crowd, 

And fiery hearts and armed hands 
Encountered in the battle-cloud. 

Ah never shall the land forget 

How gushed the life-blood of her brave— 

Gushed, warm with hope and courage yet, 

Upon the soil they fought to save. 





79 


Now all is calm, and fresh, and still, 

Alone the chirp of flitting bird. 

And talk of children on the hill. 

And bell of wandering kine are heard. 

No solemn host goes trailing by, 

The black mouthed gun and staggering wain 
Men start not at the battle-cry. 

Oh, be it never heard again. 

Soon rested those who fought ; but thou 
Who minglest in the harder strife 
For truths which men receive not now, 

Thy warfare only ends with life. 

A friendless warfare, lingering long 
Through weary day and weary year. 

A wild and many-weaponed throng 
Hang on thy front, and flank, and rear. 

Yet nerve thy spirit to the proof, 

And blench not at thy chosen lot. 

The timid good may stand aloof. 

The sage may frown,—yet faint thou not. 

Nor heed the shaft too surely cast, 

The foul and hissing bolt of scorn ; 

For with thy side shall dwell, at last. 

The victory of endurance born. 

Truth, crushed to earth, shall rise again ; 

The eternal years of God are hers; 

But Error, wounded, writhes in pain, 

And dies among his worshippers. 



8o 


Yea, though thou lie upon the dust, 

When they who helped thee flee in fear, 

Die full of hope and manly trust, 

Like those who fell in battle here. 

Another hand thy sword shall wield, 

Another hand the standard wave, 

Till from the trumpet’s mouth is pealed 
The blast of triumph o’er thy grave.” 

It is well for us, it is well for all who enter upon 
the work of uprooting old ideas and replacing them 
by new ones, to remember this, and to carry with 
us into this work of education upon which we have 
entered the magnificent thought, the inspiring hope 
here expressed. It will be all right by and by. 
Only let us be faithful; let the good work go on ; 
let us keep the ideal before us and work steadily 
towards it; and though we may not live to see the 
realization of our hopes, those who follow us will. 

“Slow are the steps of Freedom, but her feet 
Turn never backward ; hers no bloody glare ; 

Her light is calm, and innocent, and sweet, 

And where it enters there is no despair.” 

I do not depair. This Negro problem will be 
solved ; and when it is ultimately solved, the Negro 
will have all of his rights. There will be none to ! 
molest him or make him afraid ; there will be no I 
disposition to molest or make him afraid. The stars j 
and stripes will mean equal protection to all citi- 

MB 103 







8 


zens, in the enjoyment of every right, whether at 
home or abroad. The principles of the Declaration 
of Independence will be no longer glittering gener¬ 
alities, mere empty sentiments, but realities, living, 
vitalizing forces in the life of the nation ; America 
will be no longer, in name only, as we lyingly 
and hypocritically sing to day, “The land of the 
free, and the home of the brave,” but in reality. 
It will then, be the land of the free. Its citizens, 
white and black alike, will be free, in the enjoyment 
of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in any 
section of it. It will then be the home of the brave. 
Its prejudices will have been conquered, and right 
will have been enthroned in the hearts of the peo¬ 
ple. 















































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